We Might As Well Be Strangers
by Connie Welsh
Summary: Harry reflects on a memorable night spent with Draco… DMHP PG13 for blood and sex references


Summary: Harry reflects on a memorable night spent with Draco… DM/HP

Disclaimer: What makes you think little 'ole me could ever own Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy? I just steal them from the shoebox under J.K. Rowling's bed for my own evil purposes once in a while…

A/N: This is my first Draco/Harry slash ever (and probably the last), based upon "We Might As Well Be Strangers", by Keane. I love this song, and wanted to incorporate it in a fanfiction, but for the longest time I couldn't decide whether to use it in a Draco/Hermione or a Draco/Harry (my two favorite pairings). I finally decided to stray out of my element and write my first ever slash. Please go easy on me; I'm a rookie in this department. Hope it is liked at least a little bit though. And before I forget, any Lord of the Rings buffs should recognize a line near the end of the fic, straight from Gandalf's mouth himself. Cyber chocolate bar if you find it. Cheers to beneathmyskin, my best bud and the most awesomest beta reader.

I pass you in the corridors each day, yet no words are spoken, no looks exchanged. Do my eyes give me away? Do they reflect the pain you caused so easily that you refuse to acknowledge me? Like an unwanted dog I sit at your feet, begging to be tossed a bone. Are we so different, you and I? Will you let our differences stop you? You didn't seem to care that night…

"_I don't know your face no more  
Or feel the touch that I adore…"_

That night, when I found you in a pool of blood in the boy's bathroom. I don't know what snapped in me then. Maybe I've seen too much innocent bloodshed in battle, perhaps I found you just to beautiful to waste, perhaps I just wasn't thinking. I'll probably never know. All I know is that I couldn't help but save you. You, my rival for seven years now. What's even more ironic is that I saved you from yourself. Maybe that was it. Maybe I thought that if I wasn't allowed to take my own life away, end the journey through hell I was destined to walk though before it even began, you shouldn't be allowed either. You, whose life is almost perfect.

"_I don't know your face no more  
It's just a place I'm looking for…"_

I remember the way you looked at me up in the hospital wing, a mix of hate, shame, and humiliation swirling in your gray eyes. Yet somehow I saw through the mask. I saw what had lain beneath. Appreciation, fear, pain… and love. The last emotion startled me the most. I thought you were incapable of loving anyone but yourself. How wrong it was…

"_We might as well be strangers in another town  
We might as well be living in a different world  
We might as well, we might as well, we might as well…"_

To this day I fathom how you got past the Fat Lady and into my dorm. I guess I never asked. I was too startled by you practically throwing me from my bed, demanding that I follow you at one o'clock in the morning. Good thing it was over Christmas break huh? My dorm mates would have murdered you had they been there. Yet somehow I knew you wouldn't hurt me, even though all logic screamed against it.

"_I don't know your thoughts these days  
We're strangers in an empty space…"_

But follow you I did, down to the deepest dungeon, down farther than I had ever dared venture before. I didn't speak, lest I ruin everything and shatter this dream. Finally you stopped and turned to me.

"Why?" came your harsh accusation, your voice choked with tears, "Why!"

"_I don't understand your heart  
It's easier to be apart…"_

"Why…?" I repeated softly, confused, "Why is what I should be asking you."

My heart bled into my chest as you fell to your knees before me, and only as you buried your face in your hands did I notice the white bandage around your wrist; a painful reminder of your attempt to end your life.

Your pain becomes mine as I kneel with you, taking you into my arms as we both weep our anguish in bitter tears.

"_We might as well be strangers in another town  
We might as well be living in another time  
We might as well, we might as well, we might as well…"_

Time becomes immeasurable. Finally you speak. You tell me why you tried to end it all, why your blood soaked my robe upstairs. Such anguish, such despair! I had never realized, never even considered that there was another like me; so overcome with pain that it clouded all else, bearing upon our shoulders like the weight of the world.

"_Be strangers  
Be strangers…"_

I share my pain with you in turn, and together we weep again, clinging to each other like the frightened children we really are. I kiss your forehead. You kiss my mouth. What followed was a mix of pleasurable pain, heavenly hell. We exorcize old demons of pain, only to create new ones.

"_For all I know of you now  
For all I know of you now…"_

And now here we are, teetering on the edge of the abyss. The deep breath before the plunge. Will this deafening silence consume us both? Will we someday meet on the battlefield? I don't have the answers, and neither do you. All I know is that we might as well be strangers. You don't know me now, and I don't know you. Will we ever know…?

"_For all I know of you now  
For all I know…"_


End file.
